Is there a doctor on board? What really happens during a medical emergency at 35,000 feet

Such instances are rare but occasionally passengers get ill during a flight, sometimes seriously so. Take, for example, the recent mid-air emergency of actress Carrie Fisher, who suffered a heart attack between London and Los Angeles.

As the United Airlines flight descended towards LAX, crew were called to Fisher’s aid. At least one passenger who was a medical professional also came forward to help, according to reports, as efforts were made to revive the actress. Paramedics met the plane and Fisher was taken to a hospital in LA, but died four days later.

Is there a doctor on board?

Cabin crew must dread having to make the announcement requesting emergency medical assistance but at times it is necessary.

Should there be a doctor among the passengers on a flight, they can be called on to deal with anything from minor incidents, including panic attacks, and back pain, to strokes and heart attacks.

Anyone who answers a call for medical help might have to provide documents as proof of trainingCredit:
Sarun Laowong/R9_RoNaLdO

“When people think of emergencies in the air, they often imagine moments of high drama, but the reality is often much more mundane,” Dr Richard Dawood told Telegraph Travel. “Often the main requirement is for somebody to provide reassurance that all is well, both to an anxious passenger as well as to the crew, who might need extra help assessing the severity of the situation and someone who can help take charge.”

I spent much of the next 11 hours looking after her and trying to keep her hydrated and calmDr Richard Dawood

He has been called on to help out on more than one occasion. “I don’t announce my presence, but there’s a clue in my name,” he said. “Usually I respond, but on a flight to Tokyo last year, one of my children responded on my behalf, and woke me up.”

Most recently he was asked to give advice during a flight not regarding the health of a passenger, but of a flight attendant.

“A young flight attendant on a flight to Australia was suffering from severe diarrhoea and vomiting,” he said. “She couldn't keep anything down, and kept having to drag herself to the toilet. The crew asked for a doctor to administer an anti-nausea injection, which I was happy to do.”

“Even though I had my own medicines and medical equipment with me that could have helped her further, their advisers on the ground would only allow me to use medicines from the crew supply,” he said, “and only then after running a check on my credentials.

“I spent much of the next 11 hours looking after her and trying to keep her hydrated and calm. More importantly, the crew rest area where she had been taken was only a couple of feet away from the galley – she had been vomiting everywhere, and there was a high probability that two or three trolleys of food and food preparation surfaces had been exposed.

“I think my main contribution on that flight was advising the crew not to serve food from the galley, since she probably had norovirus. The entire aircraft was quarantined on landing, until the flight attendant could be taken off by paramedics, and the aircraft inspected. The resulting delay made me miss my connecting flight, but I was happy to have helped.”

It is not mandatory to record incidents where passengers are taken illCredit:
This content is subject to copyright./Digital Vision.

How do you know if they're a real doctor?

The practice of running background checks on passengers who claim to be doctors is now commonplace, in America at least. There was controversy recently regarding a passenger who offered her services in an emergency situation only to have her experience questioned by cabin crew. Tamika Cross, a young, black doctor went public to question why her offer of medical help on a Delta Airlines flight had been refused. "I raised my hand to grab (the flight attendant's) attention,” Cross reportedly wrote on Facebook. “She said to me 'oh no sweetie put your hand down".

Delta said its crew instead accepted assistance from another passenger who could produce documents proving medical training. But it later went on to change its policy because of the incident and no longer expects doctors to carry identification.

What if no doctors or nurses are available?

Cabin crew are, of course, trained to deal with many medical emergencies themselves. British Airways told us that it was a entirely a judgment call for cabin crew whether or not they attempt to deal with a situation themselves, whether they request assistance from suitably qualified passengers or whether they call for medical advice from experts on the ground, using a service based in America called Med link. This information will also help a pilot decide whether or not to divert a plane to get the passenegr to a hospital.

Their staff, as with other cabin crew, are taught how to keep passengers from panicking by talking in a calm but authoritative voice. Their medical training ranges from using a defibrillator to performing CPR, to helping people choking, to delivering a baby and cutting the cord.

British Airways crew are trained to operate defibrillators and even deliver babiesCredit:
2010 Getty Images/Dan Kitwood

How likely is a medical emergency?

Medical emergencies occur in roughly 1 out of 600 commercial flights, according to findings published in 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center calculated that this translates into 44,000 in-flight medical emergencies worldwide every year.

As there is no requirement to record such incidents, no-one can be sure exactly. Especially as the most common illness onboard is fainting, which is likely to go unreported.